IB Middle School
Our World Neighborhood Charter School MYP Inclusion Policy
The Our World Neighborhood Charter School Admissions Policy
Our World Neighborhood Charter School’s admission policy is non-sectarian and does not discriminate against any student on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability or any other ground that would be unlawful if done by a school. Admission to Our World Neighborhood Charter School will not be limited on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, English proficiency level, athletic ability, disability, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion or ancestry. Any child who is qualified under New York State law for admission to a public school is qualified for admission to Our World Neighborhood Charter School. OWNCS will ensure compliance with all applicable anti-discrimination laws governing public schools, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and § 2854(2) of the New York Education Law, governing admission to a charter school.
Our World Neighborhood Charter School Commitment to Inclusion
Inclusion is an ongoing process that aims to increase access and engagement in learning for all students by identifying and removing barriers.
(Learning diversity in the International Baccalaureate programmes; 2010)
All students enrolled in Our World Neighborhood Charter School in Grades 6-8 will be enrolled in the school’s Middle Years Programme (MYP). As part of its mission, Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools is committed to developing students into globally-minded citizens who understand, appreciate and respect people different from themselves. Thus, Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools is committed to creating culturally, ethnically, racially and socio-economically diverse school communities where adults and children from all different backgrounds will come together within one community which celebrates both our shared values and our unique individual identities.
Our World Neighborhood Charter School’s educational program is one of inclusion: students of all backgrounds and abilities are educated together in classrooms of heterogeneous learners. Students with disabilities, English language learners and struggling students receive supports and interventions with their grade-level peers within the general education classrooms through instructional differentiation and scaffolding by the content area teacher and additional supports and modifications provided by interventionists pushing into the classroom. Our commitment to inclusion ensures all students have access to the MYP and are held to the same expectations and performance standards so that all can realize their best possible selves
Support for Struggling Students
Teachers and specialists frequently assess the students to determine each child’s individual needs and provide any special services, modifications, accommodations, and/or materials they require to access the curriculum and achieve their highest potential. A teacher may refer a struggling student to the School’s Student Intervention Team (SIT). The SIT provides a school-based mechanism to enable school personnel to meet the needs of individual children within the school who are having difficulty in the educational setting. It is a team comprised of an administrator, ELA Coach, classroom teachers, social worker, special education teacher, reading specialist, parents and ELL teacher, as necessary, which implements the schools’ Response to Intervention (RTI) process. The team is child-centered and facilitates a process that results in the implementation of accommodations, services, and interventions that will enable the child to be successful in school. Classroom teachers provide records of observation, assessment data, intervention data and other information for review by the SIT.
The SIT will review the student’s behavior and academic performance, interview the student’s teacher(s), and consult with the student’s parents and offer recommendations. The SIT may use the Pre-Referral Intervention Manual (PRIM) to guide the identification of RTI strategies. The options to be considered exist along a wide continuum of support, ranging from mild accommodations to extensive intervention and may be available within the school, the district of residence or located elsewhere in the community. The SIT has the responsibility to: (1) Review any problems (academic/developmental, behavioral, social/emotional) interfering with the child’s performance in school; (2) Brainstorm solutions; (3) Make recommendations to meet the child’s needs; and (4) Monitor/review results of the recommendations. The monitoring and review process takes place approximately every 6 weeks after the SIT analyzes internal assessment results, including i-Ready and other internal assessments.
If there is no improvement in the student’s academic performance or other areas of concern the student will receive intensive academic intervention including from intervention specialists like the Reading Specialists, ELL teachers, Special Education teachers and counselors, or the promotion of the home-school connection to address needs.
A referral to the Committee for Special Education will be considered only when it is clearly demonstrated and documented that the interventions, curriculum modifications, prevention strategies, and remedial services are insufficient to address the student's needs.
Throughout the year, teachers and instructional specialists with oversight and support from the Principal, guidance counselor, and instructional coaches will evaluate the progress of the struggling students from their performance on ongoing student assessments and student classroom observations. The workshop model facilitates instructional staff being able to make real time modifications to the lesson plans and instructional strategies to address the needs of struggling students. The performance of struggling students will also be measured using formative and summative assessments and standardized assessments like the i-Ready and the New York State assessments. Analysis of assessment data will allow the instructional team to see progress or lack of progress and particular areas in which progress was or was not made.
Students with Special Needs
Our World Neighborhood Charter School provides instruction to students with disabilities in the most inclusive environment possible with their non-disabled peers to the extent appropriate and subject in all instances to the requirements and restrictions included in each student’s IEP prepared by the Committee on Special Education (CSE) of the student’s district of residence and in accordance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations (e.g., IDEA). OWNCS will ensure that the special education programs and services as indicated on each student’s IEP will be provided directly to the student during school hours. OWNCS will provide support services to students to ensure that IEP mandates and measurable goals are met. OWNCS will not place a student in a learning environment that is inconsistent with the IEP. Students with disabilities will also be expected to participate in, and receive credit for, nonacademic, extracurricular and ancillary programs and activities with all other students to the extent allowed by the IEP. Students with disabilities will receive all notices concerning school-sponsored programs, activities, and services.
At Our World Neighborhood Charter School, the least restrictive environment includes special education teacher support services and Integrated Co-Teaching Classrooms for its students with disabilities. Our World Neighborhood Charter School’s counseling staff provides IEP-mandated counseling to SWD in addition to providing counseling services to other students within the general education population. Our World Neighborhood Charter School works with the NYCDOE to ensure that students receive speech language pathology and audiologist services; psychological services; physical and occupational therapy; and other related services as needed by its enrolled SWD’s IEPs. Special education students in Our World Neighborhood Charter School receive their adapted curriculum work and other therapies, such as speech-language therapy and occupational therapy in a setting that is in accordance with their IEPs. The school will ensure that the teacher of a student with a disability is knowledgeable about the student’s needs and will help implement any modifications or accommodation as determined by the CSE of the student’s district of residence. In any event that Our World Neighborhood Charter School is unable to provide services in accordance with the student’s IEP, it will rely on the school district of the student’s residence to provide services.
English Language Learners
Our World Neighborhood Charter School uses the approach of sheltered instruction for teaching content to English language learners in strategic ways that make the subject matter concepts comprehensible (i.e. provide access to mainstream, grade level content—not watering down the subject matter) while promoting the students’ English language development. Research of ESL programs indicates successful performance on ELA assessments is based upon the development of both oral proficiency and cognitive academic language proficiency. Academic language proficiency includes the language skills required for literacy and complex thinking such as reading comprehension, writing mechanics, critical thinking skills, study skills, and academic vocabulary. Strategies that promote the acquisition of cognitive academic language proficiency include… sheltered English instruction. We expect that our classroom teachers, through targeted professional development as well as through push-in support with a trained ELL teacher, will build their own capacities in integrating sheltered strategies in the classroom. Content instruction is provided in English with sheltered English instructional methods to make content comprehensible. Sheltered English Instruction is "a means for making grade-level academic content more accessible for English language learners while at the same time promoting their English language development."
The ELL teacher plans and works collaboratively with the classroom teachers to integrate language and content and infuse socio-cultural awareness to scaffold instruction for students learning English. Students’ language learning is promoted through social interaction and contextualized communication, which can be readily generated in all subject areas. The ELL teacher will guide students to construct meaning from texts and classroom discourse and to understand complex content concepts by scaffolding instruction—beginning instruction at the current level of student understanding and moving students to higher levels of understanding through tailored support. The tailored support can include such strategies as adjusting their speech (paraphrasing, giving examples, providing analogies, elaborating student responses) to facilitating student comprehension and participation in discussions whether otherwise discourse might be beyond their language proficiency level. Another way the ELL teacher works in sheltered instruction within the classroom is by adjusting instructional tasks so they are incrementally challenging (pre-teaching vocabulary before a reading assignment) and students learn the skills necessary to complete tasks on their own. Through these strategies, teachers can socialize students to the academic language setting.
Classroom teachers are also able to develop their own individual capacities to effectively teach the ELLs in their classrooms. Sheltered instruction requires effective collaboration between the ELL and classroom teacher, supported by professional development for all teachers working with ELLs—not just the ELL teacher. Through collaboration and professional development, the classroom teachers are also able to deepen their knowledge of and skills in sheltered instruction strategies that effectively reach ELLs, helping them develop English language without falling behind in content knowledge.
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At Our World Neighborhood Charter School, we believe it is the responsibility of all educators, supported by the community to develop optimal learning environments for all learners to ensure each of our learners will have access to the IB MYP.
Committee and Review Process
A committee will review this policy on an ongoing basis. These positions are voluntary and, when necessary, may be appointed by the Chief Executive Officer or his/her designee. The following roles are standing positions on the committee:
- IB Program Coordinator
- Principal, Special Education Teacher, ENL Teacher, General Education Teacher
- Chief Academic Officer
The IB program coordinator will ensure that the inclusion policy is reviewed by staff at a minimum of every two years to reflect the current needs of the school population and to ensure consistency with IB expectations. All staff will commit to following and reflecting on the policy throughout the school year. It will be available on the school website for all stakeholders to view.
OUR WORLD NEIGHBORHOOD CHARTER SCHOOL LANGUAGE POLICY
Philosophy
The Our World Neighborhood Charter School MYP Language Program is designed to assist students in acquiring and refining the linguistic skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century. Mastery of the spoken and written word is fundamental to overall educational success. Continual acquisition of knowledge rests on an individual’s ability to use his or her language skills for information gathering, understanding, critical analysis and evaluation in addition to effective communication with others. As language is a principal method of communicating and learning, our goal is to encourage language learning as a lifelong process promoting academic and social growth. Language learning promotes internationalism and multicultural understanding and must be fostered in all aspects of the school community. To achieve this goal, we employ the MYP Language Aims and Objectives as well as our school’s guiding principles and New York State Next Generation Learning Standards to our instructional practices. Students are encouraged to use written language in exchange with other languages in a myriad of contexts to support the acquisition of interdisciplinary skills and as a means to express themselves powerfully, purposefully and creatively while reflecting on their learning and their lives as well as connecting with the world. Language is promoted as a tool of expression and valued as an essential part of a student’s identity. All students are encouraged to incorporate the Learner Profile as they work toward creating a better and more peaceful world. Teachers must strive to recognize the language needs of all students and work to serve these needs within and outside of the classroom. All teachers are language teachers and all classes incorporate language through reading, speaking, writing, and listening for a number of purposes. Utilizing an inquiry and project based learning approach of the MYP curriculum framework, students explore language and work toward becoming global communicators. Instruction and Assessment in Language and Literature
Beliefs and Practices:
Engagement in language instruction allows students to work within the New York State Standards for Languages other than English (LOTE) and MYP assessment criteria to consider the fundamental concepts of analyzing, organizing, producing text, and using language with the purpose of communicating, learning holistically and promoting intercultural awareness.
Within the Middle Years Programme, students will read a variety of texts including narrative, informational, and argumentative. Through listening, reading and writing instruction, students will locate, evaluate, and synthesize information in order to develop existing and create new knowledge. Our World Neighborhood Charter School’s language instruction places equal emphasis on the acquisition and application of listening and speaking skills, as well as reading and writing skills, in order to enhance comprehension and communication.
In order to provide students with an authentic and diverse language and literature learning experience, teachers will:
● Use the MYP aims and objectives as best practice
● Facilitate reading in all subject areas
● Enable students to learn and use language effectively, appropriately, accurately, and confidently.
● Develop students’ powers of oral and written communication.
● Enable students to develop and use language skills in a variety of contexts and purposes.
● Promote the appreciation, understanding, and analysis of literature
● Encourage students to explore language as a means to understand the differing perspectives of people from other cultures
● Develop students’ awareness of the role of language in other areas of the curriculum and to other ways of knowing
● Provide an opportunity for enjoyment, creativity, and intellectual stimulation through knowledge of language and literature
● Provide cross-curricular connections between texts when available
● Utilize a variety of texts with multiple perspectives
● Group students based on interest, ability, and data
● Use formative assessments to drive instruction
● Design reading/writing instruction with authentic summative assessments
● Participate in state and federally mandated assessments
● Provide opportunities for students to take action within the larger community
● Provide opportunities for real life knowledge and cultural awareness through language instruction
● Develop global citizens
Our World Neighborhood Charter School Middle Years Programme Academic Integrity Policy
What is Academic Integrity?
The IB defines academic integrity as “a set of values that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning and assessment.” Academic integrity is embedded in the Middle Years Programme standards and practices (2014).
- Standard B1.5d
The school has developed and implements an academic integrity policy that is consistent with IB expectations.
Academic integrity is reflected in one’s respect for one another’s intellectual property and the completion of “authentic” pieces of work which are “based on [the individual’s own] original ideas with the ideas and work of others fully acknowledged.” (Academic Integrity in the IB Educational Context). At Our World Neighborhood Charter School, students demonstrate academic integrity by acknowledging responsibility for the production of their own work, recognizing the work of others, and maintaining honor and trust in the learning environment.
Background and Our Philosophy
At Our World Neighborhood Charter School, academic integrity is expected of every student in all their academic undertakings, whether in their formal coursework or in their school relationships and interactions with respect to the educational process. We believe that academic integrity is reflected in adherence to a set of values and expectations that are grounded in the concept of integrity with respect to the intellectual efforts of oneself and others. Academic integrity is key to communicating and facilitating a student’s acquisition of knowledge, understanding of concepts, and mastery of skills. We believe that the education of all students is a collaborative effort in which all stakeholders (teachers, parents, guardians, and administration) and community members play an important role. Therefore, at Our World Neighborhood Charter School, all stakeholders are responsible for modeling, teaching and practicing academic integrity in order to support the growth and development of students who act with integrity and integrity and hold themselves accountable for their own actions. We consistently encourage and model the practices of academic integrity while embracing the Learner Profile Attributes and Attitudes.
Academic Integrity and the Learner Profile
Our World Neighborhood Charter School strives to promote students’ sense of self and regard for others. We work to develop lifelong learners, who embody the IB Learner Profile and the IB PYP Attitudes. While students are engaged in constructivist and inquiry-based learning, working on assessment tasks, using technology, and/or communicating and reflecting on their work, they are expected to demonstrate principled behavior. Independence, responsibility, and integrity are crucial in preparing students to show confidence in their own work and respect for the work of others.
Since the Learner Profile is the foundation of the Primary Years Programme, and serves as the cornerstone of the Our World Neighborhood Charter School Academic Integrity Policy, students are encouraged to be:
- Inquirers who acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research.
- Knowledgeable as they explore concepts, ideas and issues.
- Principled as they act with integrity, integrity and take responsibility for their actions.
- Open-minded as they seek and evaluate a range of points of view.
- Risk takers who articulate and defend their opinions and beliefs.
- Thinkers who make ethical decisions.
- Communicators who use a variety of resources to research and share their personal thinking.
- Balanced as they understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance.
- Reflective as they give careful consideration to their own learning and experiences.
- Caring as they show empathy, compassion and respect to the needs of others.
These qualities, when applied to learning and student work, establish skills and behaviors which support practices displayed within the classroom and in everyday life. These practices are introduced, modeled and used throughout the entire school community.
What is Academic Integrity in the MYP
The MYP strives to create principled, balanced learners per the IB Learner Profile through a focus on intercultural awareness, communication, and holistic learning. Given the areas of focus in the MYP, students will often be working in collaboration with their peers and using sources from experts all over the world to develop their understanding of the topics of inquiry. Therefore, we expect students to meet the following expectations which are related to the Learner Profile Attributes and Attitudes and are the basis for the development of academic integrity in our students:
Students take responsibility for their own work.
Students work individually unless otherwise instructed.
Students recognize the difference between individual work and group work.
Students give credit to other people working in the group.
Students do not copy other people’s work.
Students reference sources according to agreed-upon (age-appropriate) bibliographic formats for each grade.
Students use information technology and library resources responsibly.
Students are expected to work together, to recognize and encourage contributions of others in the group.
Students are expected to know that the purpose of an assessment, summative or formative, is to show what they know, understand, and can do and must provide their own work.
Each group member takes responsibility for his or her roles/tasks and ensures that the other members of the group understand the task and their responsibilities.
When a product is required from a group, the product should reflect each member’s contribution.
Each student’s work should be explicitly acknowledged.
Each student is capable of reflecting on his or her participation and the participation of the other members of the group.
Students are able to reflect on the group’s processing and communication.
Students will always appropriately give credit to any outside research used to inform their product.
At the beginning of the school year: the MYP coordinator leads a workshop that defines academic integrity and dishonesty. Students read the academic integrity policy and sign that they have understood it. Throughout the year: subject teachers liaise with the librarian to reiterate citing and bibliography expectations every time research is undertaken. Grades are given for this in the appropriate objective assessment strand.
Consequences for Academic Dishonesty in the MYP
Academic dishonesty includes behaviors including but not limited to plagiarism, collusion and misconduct during assessment. Our World Neighborhood Charter School distinguishes between inadvertent plagiarism and deliberate plagiarism. With inadvertent plagiarism, teachers are vigilant about regularly correcting and working with students to ensure they understand how to appropriately cite and credit sources and/or people that they used or who contributed to their final work product. Inadvertent plagiarism does not result in academic consequences.
Consequences for deliberate plagiarism
First incident
The work will not receive a grade.
The IB coordinator to be informed and give the student a guidance session on what academic integrity is and how it can be put into practice.
Students will be given a different task that covers the same assessment criteria.
Parents to be informed.
Second incident
The work will not receive a grade.
The IB coordinator will be informed.
Parents will be invited into school
Student signs a formal letter of commitment about future conduct.
Third incident
- Suspension from school for a time to be decided by the Principal
Consequences for Collusion/Misconduct
First incident
The work will not receive a grade.
The IB coordinator will be informed and lead a reflection session.
Parents informed
Second incident
The work will not receive a grade
The IB coordinator will be informed and lead a second reflection session.
The parents will be invited into school
Student to sign a letter of commitment about future conduct
Third incident
- Suspension from school for a time to be decided by the Principal
Roles and Responsibility in Supporting Academic Integrity
Faculty (including teachers, counselors, media specialists, support and paraprofessionals):
Communicate appropriate collaboration versus collusion with each assignment.
Teach a recognized citation convention for written and nonwritten works.
Demonstrate and model academic integrity in presentations, etc.
Report and record academic dishonesty through a referral.
Assure students in your class understand that when they submit a task as their own, they are representing that have not received nor given aid on assignments or assessments. Teachers can opt to ask students to use their signature to explicitly assure this point if needed.
Minimize temptation for malpractice in assignments/assessment situations.
Communicate with students, parents, counselors, administrators, with concerns and malpractice offenses.
Teachers, administrators, and counselors involve students in reflection/discussion in the instance of academic dishonesty.
Students:
- Confirm understanding of academic integrity with signature on Code of Conduct form each year.
- Report malpractice violations to a trusted school employee.
- Work to produce authentic work
- Understand that putting name on assignment certifies it as your own work, cited appropriately.
- Minimize malpractice temptation by balancing time appropriately.
- If an incident of malpractice occurs, either intentional or unintentional, complete the reflection process with your instructor.
- Understand proper citation expectations for assignments
- Ask for guidance when you are unsure.
Administration:
Support academic integrity policy and investigate all counselor/teacher reports of malpractice.
Ensure that all staff, students, and parents understand definitions, responsibilities, and repercussions.
Ensure the academic integrity policy is applied consistently throughout the school.
Provide staff development and guidance on academic writing and referencing systems that are available.
Provide teachers with material to guide students in maintaining academic integrity.
Investigation of malpractice.
Make parent and student contact to reflect on malpractice incidents.
Parents, guardians, and/or outside support:
Read/sign Code of Conduct form.
Encourage your child to practice academic integrity
Encourage your child to cultivate a culture of academic integrity in school.
Address concerns of academic misconduct/malpractice with your student and school personnel if necessary.
Monitor hired tutors to assure authentic student work.
Communication Plan
Our World Neighborhood Charter School’s Academic Integrity Policy will be published on the school website and in the Student Handbook. It will be discussed with students and parents early in the school year and referred to often throughout the school year when opportunity arises.
Review of the Academic Integrity Policy
This policy will be reviewed and updated annually by the Our World Neighborhood Charter School elementary school Principal, MYP Coordinator, Pedagogical Team and school administration.
Our World Neighborhood Charter School MYP Assessment Policy
Statement of Belief
At Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools, assessment is integral to teaching and learning. We believe the overarching purpose of assessment is to provide all our stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, administrators and the greater community) with feedback on the learning process. Assessment involves the gathering and analysis of information about student performance and is designed to inform curriculum and instructional practice. It identifies what students know, understand, can do, and feel at different stages in the learning process. Students and teachers should be actively engaged in assessing the students’ progress as part of the development of their wider critical thinking and self-assessment skills. Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools’ assessment protocol is ongoing, authentic, varied and purposeful and includes diagnostic, formative and summative components. It is a collaborative and informative process that involves students, families, teachers and community. Instructional and curricular decision making is driven by our assessments.
The Purpose of Assessment
Through the use of authentic assessments, we have objective measures by which we can communicate to administrators, teachers, students and parents the strengths and areas of growth for students, individually and collectively (by class, grade, school-wide and by accountability subgroup).
Purpose of Assessment for Students:
- To provide consistent, timely feedback and opportunity for reflection
- To measure what students know at various points in learning
- To identify strengths and weaknesses in skill acquisition
- To promote student ownership of learning
- To promote self-advocacy
- To develop habits of life-long learning
- To understand their performance in relation to the grade level expectations and reflect on their progress towards developing themselves as learners as articulated in the Learner Profile and internalising the Approaches to Learning that support the development of skills necessary to become capable and independent learners.
Purpose of Assessment for Teachers:
- To help set standards and evaluate progress
- To determine the effectiveness of teaching and inform, enhance and improve instructional practice
- To guide curriculum development and review
- To guide instructional practice and inform instructional differentiation
- To provide diagnostic feedback to students and motivate student performance
- To provide student performance data as mandated by its authoriser as well as local, state and IB criteria
Purpose of Assessment for Parents:
- To receive consistent, timely feedback on their child’s performance
- To receive evidence and gain information concerning their child’s status in relation to grade level expectations and state norms
- To discover opportunities for conversation with the child and their teacher
- To allow parents and teachers to work together to promote student learning
- To provide data as a result of instruction of curriculum
Types of Assessment
Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools administers diagnostic, formative and summative assessments as well as both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments (mainly New York State assessments and iReady assessments). To determine a student’s achievement level against MYP criteria for all subject areas, teachers will use a criterion-referenced assessment approach; therefore, student achievement is measured by their progress against specific learning objectives rather than in comparison to other students in the class/grade. Student performance will be measured against pre-determined assessment criteria based on the aims and objectives of each subject area. The achievement level for each learning goal and the quality of work expected for each achievement level will be articulated in a rubric with specific criterion. Teachers will gather evidence from a range of assessment tasks, formative and summative, to enable them to identify students’ achievement levels against established assessment criteria published in the IB subject guides.
Diagnostic assessment/Pre-assessment
Familiarity with a student’s prior knowledge informs instruction within the classroom. Prior to teaching, a diagnostic or pre-assessment helps teacher and students find out what the students already know and can do and informs how instruction must be differentiated in order to meet different entry points in a classroom of heterogeneous learners.
Formative Assessments
Formative assessment is a part of the learning process and is used to provide timely feedback to master necessary skills and concepts in preparation for the summative assessment task. Formative assessments allow teachers to gauge student progress toward meeting the NYS Next Generation Learning Standards and the IB MYP criteria and allow students to understand what needs to be improved so that they can demonstrate their understanding successfully.
Teachers will use multiple forms of formative assessment which may include, but not be limited to: quizzes, tests, homework, classwork, exit slips, student observations and short writing assignments. Regular student reflections, both written and spoken, are also forms of formative assessment.
Summative Assessments
Summative assessments are given to gauge the student’s progress in major concepts or areas of instruction. Teachers will use a variety of summative assessment tasks which may include end of unit tests, essays, presentations, open-ended tasks, process journals, portfolios and a variety of other projects.
New York State Assessments
All students in Grades 6-8 take the mandated New York State Assessments in ELA, math and science (Grade 8). Students identified as English Language Learners annually take the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test until they score high enough to exit from ELL status.
| Assessment/(Grade) | Purpose | When Administered |
|---|---|---|
| NYS ELA/(6-8) | Identify students’ ability to meet or exceed grade level standards in reading, reading comprehension and writing. | April* |
| NYS Math/(6-8) | Identify students’ ability to meet or exceed grade level standards in mathematical computation, mathematical reasoning and problem-solving | April* |
| NYS Science/(8) | Identify students’ ability to meet or exceed grade level standards in science content and use of scientific tools | April/May* |
| NYS Alternate Assessment/(6-8) | Identify SWD’s ability to meet or exceed grade level standards in all areas, if required by their IEPs | January-March |
| Home Language Information Survey (HLIS)/(6-8) | Identify those students who may be eligible for ESL programs as identified by home language | Upon enrollment |
| NYS Identification Test for ELLs (NYSITELL)/(6-8) | To measure language proficiency in English; to determine entitlement to ESL/Bilingual programs for students whose home language is other than English. | Once in Sept. if required by the HLIS |
| NYSESLAT/(6-8) | To measure student progress in developing English language proficiency & determine if an ELL’s proficiency has been met to be removed from ESL services | May |
| iReady (Reading and Math)/(6-8) | iReady will be used for two purposes: (1) benchmarking to determine progress of students towards benchmarks and to modify instruction to address identified gaps and (2) to monitor year-to-year growth. | Beginning in September, three times per year |
| Running Records (6-8) | An assessment tool used by teachers to evaluate students’ reading and comprehension. They are used to help find students’ reading levels, check their fluency and find weaknesses in comprehension. | Every 4 to 6 weeks |
| On Demand Writing/(6-8) | To assess a student’s ability to write an authentic piece of writing in one setting. | Every 4-6 weeks |
| Teacher Generated Assessments /(6-8) | Teacher-developed assessments (tests, quizzes, homework or other graded and ungraded assignments) administered to assess students’ mastery of material covered in class at a given point within a unit of study. | The administration is determined by the teacher. |
| Curricular End of Unit Assessments /(6-8) | Commercial or teacher-developed summative assessments covering material from an entire unit of study. Gauges to what extent students have achieved specific standards. | At the end of each unit. The timing of the administration of the assessment is dependent upon the length of the units. |
| Quarterly Benchmark Assessments/(6-8) | Benchmark tests in Math, Science and Social Studies which provide an assessment of students’ progress towards attainment of standards that were taught during the previous quarter. | At the end of each quarter. |
| Portfolios/(6-8) | To showcase student work, reflect and document growth and achievement over time. | Ongoing |
Grade Reporting
Teachers report to parents on student achievement quarterly, with interim progress reports at the mid-point of each quarter. In addition, there are two Parent Teacher Conferences each year. The process of communicating achievement with parents is designed to be open, transparent and collaborative.
Teachers have collaboratively developed a scale to convert numeric IB grades (0-8) to the grading nomenclature that has been used at Our World Neighborhood Charter School (what do you use? A, B,C, D, F? or 90-100% (A), 80-89 (B), etc.?
| IB Scale | Our World Neighborhood Grading Nomenclature | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ||
| 7 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 1 |
Assessment Review
We will review our assessment policy annually as part of the end of year annual curriculum review and analysis of progress towards accountability goals.
Our World Neighborhood Charter School is a candidate school* for the MYP. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. IB World Schools share a common philosophy- a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education- that we believe is important for our students. * Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes visit http://www.ibo.org.
Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools
Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools educate students to become independent thinkers and lifelong learners.